Close to the Charisma: My Years Between the Press and Pierre Elliott Trudeau

D.M.L. Farr is a professor emeritus of history at Carleton University in
Ottawa.

Patrick Gossage’s account of the relations between Pierre Trudeau and the media of Canada commands authority. From 1976 to the end of 1981, Gossage was first an assistant and then press secretary to the prime minister. For the nine months that Trudeau was leader of the opposition, Gossage served him in the same role. In 1982 he was appointed minister-counsellor of public affairs at the Canadian Embassy in Washington and served there until the Mulroney government came to power.

During the early years in the prime minister’s office (PMO) Gossage kept a journal; itis this resource along with sporadic notes that are used to reconstruct the major events of this period. The years were challenging ones for a press secretary: There was the Parti Québécois victory in 1976; Trudeau’s electoral defeat in 1979; his return to power in 1980; the Quebec referendum; the patriation of the Constitution; and Trudeau’s world peace initiative near the end of his term. Gossage attempts to provide a background to these events by interspersing short notes throughout the text. This is not always successful because the reader must sometimes rack his memory to supply the context for a particular encounter with the press.

This is the first account by a former Trudeau aide giving an intimate description of the workings of the PMO under Trudeau. It is concerned far more with Gossage’s relations with the media than with his relations with Trudeau. Thus there is very little on Trudeau’s personal assessment of the great issues of his day. There is nothing in the way of a searching evaluation of Trudeau the leader although Gossage does make the interesting observation that Trudeau did not appear to him “as a man of a certain age, but as a man who occupied a certain space. A certain removed space that neither his staff nor often the people of Canada, could easily penetrate.”

There was always a tension between Trudeau and the press and Gossage brings this out well. But the significance of a press conference or a quick exchange with a reporter in a Parliament Hill “scrum” is short-lived. One reads the newspaper story or watches the television item just before the next wave of news submerges it. Gossage’s account of how he handled relations with the journalists and broadcasters can sometimes be tedious. After all, what does it matter now that someone leaked the government’s White Paper on Constitutional Proposals in 1978? But the book is written with verve, wit and complete candour. When he was leaving the PMO to move to Washington, Gossage was gently chided by Trudeau on his inexperience when he began his assignment: “You were so green.” This quality helps to make Gossage’s recollections of his years with Trudeau such a unique and refreshing memoir.